Hello all ,
I have some simple questions to which i cannot find answers anywhere else.

My goal is to install any version of windows 7 on a usb drive or external hdd.
From what I understand win7 x64 ultimate w/ SP1 seems to be the safest way since it has more drivers. Please let me know if I'm wrong. My motherboard(x64) seems to be uefi-based with legacy-boot support available, but SATA/AHCI options are unavailable. The internal hdd is eMMc.

(05-21-2016, 07:32 PM)Tsundere-chan Wrote: Hello all ,
I have some simple questions to which i cannot find answers anywhere else.

My goal is to install any version of windows 7 on a usb drive or external hdd.
From what I understand win7 x64 ultimate w/ SP1 seems to be the safest way since it has more drivers. Please let me know if I'm wrong. My motherboard(x64) seems to be uefi-based with legacy-boot support available, but SATA/AHCI options are unavailable. The internal hdd is eMMc.

Windows 7 is not completely portable, you may have driver problems when booting on different computers, so highly recommend using Windows 10/8.1/8 to create portable Windows.

If you want to boot UEFI-based computer, we recommend that you covert the USB drive to MBR partition scheme and create two patitions (one small FAT32 partition for the system partition and one NTFS partition for the boot partition), then create Windows To Go drive.

VHD(X) mode is the best choice when using a USB flash drive to create W2G, otherwise we recommended using Legacy mode.

Windows disk management wouldn't let me create a second partition for some reason (Create simple volume was greyed out). The usb drive was 32gb. So I tried used EaseUS Partition Master and was able to do the partition scheme that you said (both are primary partitions). However WinToUsb insists on formatting the usb and creates only 1 NTFS partition on the usb. What do you think is going on?

(05-28-2016, 07:25 PM)Tsundere-chan Wrote: Windows disk management wouldn't let me create a second partition for some reason (Create simple volume was greyed out). The usb drive was 32gb. So I tried used EaseUS Partition Master and was able to do the partition scheme that you said (both are primary partitions). However WinToUsb insists on formatting the usb and creates only 1 NTFS partition on the usb. What do you think is going on?

First of all, your computer is a UEFI-based computer, so the Windows To Go drive which you want to boot on it must be a UEFI-based Windows To Go drive.

Secondly, on a usb flash drive, Windows will recognize only the first partition. This means that even if you create a multi-partitioned usb flash drive, Windows will not mount the other volumes or assign drive letters to them, in fact that Windows completely unable to access these partitions.

Finally, We all know that installing Windows in UEFI mode requires 2 partitions, one for EFI system partition, the other one for Windows boot partition. But there can only be one partition on a USB flash drive in the Windows operating.

For the reasons mentioned above, WinToUSB does not support creating a UEFI-based Windows To Go drive using a USB flash drive yet, so the WinToUSB USB flash drive can't boot in UEFI mode. And most modern UEFI computers support booting in both BIOS mode and in EFI mode, so maybe you can boot it in BIOS mde if your computer supports BIOS mode.

At present there are two possible solutions for you:
1. We recommend that you use an external hard drive or a Windows To Go Certified Drives to create a UEFI-based Windows To Go drive, then you can boot it from a UEFI-based computer.
2. The "Physical To USB" can create a USB flash drive which can boot on a UEFI-based computer, maybe you can have a try.

By the way, we have found a way to install Windows to a USB flash drive as a Windows To Go drive, and we will improve it in future releases.

Regarding UEFI mode/BIOS mode
By BIOS mode do you mean the 'legacy' (as my BIOS calls it)? In that case would I need to convert to W2G+VHD? Furthermore, I thought that Windows 7 does not support EFI boot.

Regarding external hdd:
I have an external hdd, but I am curious: why is it different to a usb drive? What settings/partition should I use for the external?

If I can somehow run Win7 on my laptop, I will gladly buy all your future softwares and tell my friends

Regarding UEFI mode/BIOS mode
By BIOS mode do you mean the 'legacy' (as my BIOS calls it)? In that case would I need to convert to W2G+VHD? Furthermore, I thought that Windows 7 does not support EFI boot.

Regarding external hdd:
I have an external hdd, but I am curious: why is it different to a usb drive? What settings/partition should I use for the external?

If I can somehow run Win7 on my laptop, I will gladly buy all your future softwares and tell my friends

Yes, the BIOS mode is called legacy mode in some BIOS. And the VHD mode is the best choice when using a non-certified drive (such as USB flash drive) to create Windows To Go.

As mentioned above, the UEFI booting requires 2 partitions (one small FAT32 partition for the EFI system partition and one NTFS partition for the boot partition), but Windows will recognize only the first partition on a usb flash drive, so we are unable to create a UEFI-based Windows To Go drive using a USB flash drive.
If you want to creating a Windows To Go drive using an external hard drive, we recommend that you covert the external hard drive to MBR partition scheme and create two partitions (the small FAT32 partition for the system partition and the big NTFS partition for the boot partition), this partition layout can boot both BIOS-based and UEFI-based computers. please refer to the following picture:

About the issue, please check to see if any of the following items apply to your situation:

1. Windows 7 does not have built-in USB 3.0 support, so Windows 7 to go drive must be to boot from a USB 2.0 port. Please insert your usb drive to a USB 2.0 port and try again.
2. Ensure that the Windows To Go drive is connected directly to a USB port on the computer. Many computers don’t support booting from a device connected to a USB 3 PCI add-on card or external USB hubs.

After WinToUSB tells you the installation is complete, you must complete the remaining Windows setup steps in traditional BIOS mode, otherwise the installation will fail.